Tokyo Indies November 2016

Another month means another Tokyo Indies, with a large crowd gathering at Fab Cafe in Shibuya to check out the latest in local gamedev. It's hard to believe it's only the third time at the new venue, as guests and presenters settled comfortably in for the presentations. This time five developers introduced what they're working on:

On to the summaries!

First up was Kwaidan, which was also presented at Tokyo Indies a few months ago. The game is billed as a combination of 3D action and point-and-click adventure where you fight youkai while trying to solve a mystery. The inventory system in particular takes inspiration from classic adventure games. A free demo for Windows is currently distributed on the game's homepage.

Next up was a Donald Trump Simulator. Googling around I found a pile of games called "Trump Simulators", but this one is the only one that's a first-person 3D action game where you aren't Trump. In the game, you're chased by many Donald Trumps who behave like zombies, trying to attack you. You can shoot the word "FACTS" at them, but it's not very effective. If you're curious, find more details at the game's homepage.

Following that was Quick Crawler, a free dungeon-crawling idle game for iOS and Android. As an idle game it mostly plays itself, but choosing what equipment to use and when add strategy to the game. When your character dies their level is reset but they can keep equipment, so there's a balance between saving up for bigger items or upgrading to survive now. To try it out just check the links above; the game has support for seven different languages. The translations were created primarily using Google Translate, but with some volunteer support and careful checking they should hopefully be OK.

Next up, Resonance/Conflicta is an in-development game from Reminisce, the creator of Link: The Unleashed Nexus, currently available on Steam. Both are games about flying around and fighting in midair, though Resonance has a stronger focus on music. In the presentation it was mentioned that the soundtrack is split into different parts by instrument that can be combined according to the game state, even paying attention to details like boss HP. This sounds a bit like the dynamic music system used in PSO2 to keep the game feeling fresh when replaying levels. If it sounds up your alley, you can follow development on Twitter.

Finally, Tribal Siege is a greenlit "RTS/Action Hybrid" currently in development. First presented at last year's November Tokyo Indies, it was greenlit shortly after and has progressed a lot since then. The main detail that sets the game apart from standard RTS games are the "Tramplers", giant powerful units that can dominate the battlefield. Each player has one, and while normally inactive they can be brought to life and controlled by expending Piety. The developer mentions Age of Mythology as an inspiration, though the system also brings to mind Black and White, Kingdom Under Fire, or Warrior Kings: Battles.

That was all for this month. The next Tokyo Indies is on 12/13; feel free to sign up on Facebook. See you there! Ψ